Nehemiah 2
2:1 a never ... sad in his presence: A servant was not to let his personal life interfere with serving the king.2:2 b Nehemiah was terrified because he had let his sadness show, and he did not know how the king would respond if he told him the reason for his sorrow (King Artaxerxes had previously ordered that Jerusalem not be rebuilt, Ezra 4:21-22 c). Nehemiah was not putting on an act; his deep mourning showed despite his best efforts to conceal it.
2:3 d Nehemiah affirmed his loyalty with the customary long live the king (cp. Dan 2:4 e), yet he did not deny his sadness.
2:4 f With a prayer: The king was subject to the God of heaven, and Nehemiah needed God’s guidance and provision as he made his request.
2:5 g send me to Judah to rebuild the city: Artaxerxes’ openness to this proposal seems surprising in light of Jerusalem’s history of rebellions against Persia (Ezra 4:17-23 h). The king might have viewed Nehemiah’s plan as a way to solidify his own control over a troubled area of his empire.
2:6 i How long will you be gone? (see 5:14 j): Nehemiah probably requested a short period of time initially, later asking for an extension.
2:8 k Temple fortress might refer to the Tower of Hananel or the Tower of the Hundred.
• the gracious hand of God was on me: Nehemiah knew that the king granted these requests because God was sovereignly guiding the king to do so.
2:9 l Because Nehemiah was a government official, he had an armed escort of officers and horsemen for his trip to Jerusalem (cp. Ezra 8:22 m).
2:10 n Some of the local, non-Jewish officials were very displeased because rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem would change the balance of political power in favor of the Jews.
• Sanballat was the main leader of opposition to Nehemiah’s rebuilding efforts.
• the Horonite: He was probably from Upper or Lower Horon (Beth-horon, Josh 16:3 o), approximately 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of Jerusalem. Sanballat’s name might indicate that he was a descendant of the Assyrian people imported by Sargon II after the fall of Samaria (2 Kgs 17:24 p). A document discovered in Egypt indicates that he eventually became governor of Samaria in 408 BC.
Summary for Neh 2:12-15: 2:12-15 q Nehemiah needed firsthand knowledge of the condition of the walls to present credible plans for their reconstruction and to rally the labor he would need. He conducted his survey secretly after dark to avoid detection by his opponents. His inspection covered only the southern part of the city.
2:13 r Jackal’s Well might have been En-rogel, a water source located about 400 yards [365 meters] south of the city, or the pool of Siloam, which is filled by water flowing through Hezekiah’s meandering, serpentine tunnel.
• The Dung Gate (called the “Gate of Broken Pots” in Jer 19:2 s) at the southern end of the western wall (see Neh 3:13 t) led to the Hinnom Valley, where inhabitants of the city threw their garbage.
2:14 u The King’s Pool was either the pool of Siloam or another pool southeast of the city; both were created from the overflow of the Gihon Spring (see 2 Kgs 20:20 v).
Summary for Neh 2:16-17: 2:16-17 w Nehemiah kept his inspection and rebuilding plans secret from both the Persian and Jewish leaders to prevent opposition from being organized. But now Nehemiah was effectively positioned to lead the rebuilding effort.
• what trouble we are in: The broken walls brought disgrace on the city and reflected negatively on God; Jerusalem certainly did not look like the “city of the great King” (Ps 48:2 x).
2:18 y Evidence of God’s clear involvement (2:8 z) is a strong motivator in any project. Nehemiah had God’s guidance, the king’s permission, the necessary letters to procure lumber, and a plan to lead the project. So the people enthusiastically agreed to begin working.
2:19 aa Nehemiah’s enemies immediately scoffed and tried to stop progress. These opponents were dangerous because of their potential ability to discourage the people and undermine Nehemiah’s credibility.
• Are you rebelling against the king? This serious charge could bring death (see also Ezra 4:6-23 ab).
2:20 ac The title God of heaven communicated to Persian audiences that Israel’s true God was not a minor local deity. Nehemiah remained focused on obeying his sovereign by building the walls.
Nehemiah 3
Summary for Neh 3:1-32: 3:1-32 ad This summary of the people who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem moves in a circle around the city, starting at the northeast corner and moving west, then south, east, and north.Summary for Neh 3:1-5: 3:1-5 ae The rebuilding of the walls and gates around the northern section of the city was divided into eight work groups. 3:1 af Eliashib the high priest, the grandson of Jeshua (12:10 ag), led the priests in working on the northern wall around the Temple.
• The Sheep Gate was where the people brought in their sheep on their way to sacrifice at the Temple.
• The Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel were two major military towers along the northern wall (12:39 ah; Jer 31:38 ai; Zech 14:10 aj).
3:3 ak At the Fish Gate, people sold fish from the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean Sea.
3:4 al Meremoth: See Ezra 8:33 am.
• Meshullam had given his daughter in marriage to a son of Tobiah (Neh 6:18 an; see also 10:20 ao).
3:5 ap The leaders of Tekoa might have been influenced by Geshem (2:19 aq), who controlled the area south of Tekoa.
Summary for Neh 3:6-8: 3:6-8 ar These verses describe work done on the walls and gates on the western side of Jerusalem. Even people from outside the city and people having wealth or more delicate occupations participated. 3:6 as The Old City Gate: The oldest part of Jerusalem sat on an eastern hill that ran north to the Temple Mount.
3:7 at Gibeon and Mizpah were about six miles (10 kilometers) north of Jerusalem.
3:8 au The Broad Wall was located in the newer, western section of the city.
Summary for Neh 3:9-13: 3:9-13 av Nehemiah wisely assigned people to work near their homes both to motivate them to do good work and to save them traveling time.
3:11 aw The Tower of the Ovens on the western wall of the city might have been a place to bake bread or to burnish pottery (Jer 19:1-2 ax).
3:13 ay Zanoah was a village about thirteen miles (21 kilometers) southwest of Jerusalem.
Summary for Neh 3:14-15: 3:14-15 az These verses focus on the reconstruction of the southern tip of the city where the Hinnom Valley and Kidron Valley meet. 3:14 ba The Beth-hakkerem district might have been about two miles (3.2 kilometers) south of Jerusalem (at modern Ramat Rachel) or five miles (8 kilometers) west (at modern Ain Karem).
3:15 bb The Mizpah district was about six miles (10 kilometers) north of Jerusalem.
• The king’s garden was a lush area east of the pool of Siloam near where the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys meet, possibly at the King’s Pool (2:14 bc).
Summary for Neh 3:16-32: 3:16-32 bd These verses describe the building of the new eastern wall. 3:16 be The district of Beth-zur was located just north of Hebron.
• The tombs of David’s family might refer to where King David was buried (1 Kgs 2:10 bf; 11:43 bg; 2 Chr 21:20 bh; Acts 2:29 bi), and the House of the Warriors might have been a tomb for David’s mighty men (2 Sam 23:8-39 bj).
3:24 bk The angle and the corner refers to an unidentified turn in the wall.
Summary for Neh 3:25-26: 3:25-26 bl The tower that projects up from the king’s upper house and the court of the guard might refer to a royal complex on the hill of Ophel, just south of the Temple area.
Summary for Neh 3:28-32: 3:28-32 bm This final group of workers connected the repairs to the Sheep Gate, where the work had started (3:1 bn).
• Horse Gate: See also 2 Chr 23:15 bo; Jer 31:40 bp.
• East Gate: See also 1 Chr 26:14 bq, 17 br; 2 Chr 31:14 bs; Ezek 10:19 bt; 40:21-22 bu.
Nehemiah 4
4:2 bv The Persians had stationed Samarian army officers in Jerusalem to keep peace.• poor, feeble Jews: Sanballat’s mockery had an element of truth: The Jews were not rich, powerful, or many in number. However, Sanballat failed to realize the strength of the God whom the Jews served.
• Do they think ... by just offering a few sacrifices? Sanballat might have been mocking a sudden increase in sacrifices at the Temple as the Israelites dedicated their work to the Lord.
• rubbish ... charred: When fire destroyed Jerusalem (586 BC), it heated the stones, causing some to crack and crumble. The people used these stones to restore the walls.
4:4 bw Nehemiah prayed intensely for God to stop those who opposed God’s will. Nehemiah’s practice was to cry out to God in times of need (2:4 bx; 5:19 by; 6:14 bz; 13:14 ca, 22 cb, 29 cc, 31 cd).
4:5 ce Do not ignore their guilt: See also thematic note for Prayers for Vengeance at end of chapter.
4:6 cf half its height: Perhaps 10–12 feet (3.0–3.7 meters) tall, since some scholars speculate that the original wall was 20–24 feet (6.0–7.3 meters) high.
4:7 cg Israel’s enemies from the north (Sanballat), the south (Arabs), the east (Ammonites), and the west (Ashdodites) were enraged by the speed and success of Jerusalem’s reconstruction, which threatened these opponents’ political power in the region.
4:9 ch we prayed ... and guarded: This wise approach to the threat involved both relying on God and doing what was needed.
4:11 ci The relentless psychological attack of Israel’s enemies was having a negative effect on morale.
4:12 cj They will come from all directions and attack us! Jews from the surrounding areas might have been exhorting the people working in Jerusalem to return to their villages to avoid being killed in an attack.
4:13 ck Nehemiah countered by positioning armed guards near the most vulnerable parts of the wall. He also made sure opponents outside the wall could see the forces ready to defend the city.
4:14 cl The strongest motivation for hope was Israel’s great and glorious God, who had delivered his people from mighty nations before (cp. 2 Chr 32:7-8 cm; see Exod 14:13-14 cn; Deut 8:1-3 co; 20:3 cp; Josh 10:25 cq). Another motivation was to protect their own families and properties.
4:15 cr Nehemiah gave the credit to God (see also 2:20 cs; 6:16 ct), who had frustrated them through the prayers of the people, the 24-hour patrol, the open display of force, and the confidence in God’s protection.
Summary for Neh 4:18-19: 4:18-19 cu Through the trumpeter, Nehemiah could sound the alarm to direct workers to any portion of the wall that might be attacked.
4:20 cv our God will fight for us! Drawing on Israel’s ancient holy war tradition (Exod 14:14 cw; Deut 1:30 cx; 20:4 cy; Josh 10:14 cz; 23:10 da), Nehemiah encouraged the people that victory was certain if they trusted in the Lord.
4:23 db Nehemiah and the other leaders were not elitists who relaxed while others toiled.
Thematic note: Prayers for Vengeance
The psalmists sometimes asked the Lord to execute vengeance against their adversaries. It was not unusual for a psalmist to pray for the violent destruction of their enemies as a manifestation of God’s justice. How can this kind of prayer be okay?
These prayers for the destruction of the wicked arose out of concern for justice and righteousness and out of confidence in God. Divine justice is defined in Psalm 1:6 dc: The Lord loves the righteous and destroys the wicked. The wicked are subversive, corrupt, and thoroughly committed to evil; they live in opposition to God and to everything that God does. The wicked shake the foundations of ethics, of society, and of God’s kingdom. The psalmists argued that evil is inconsistent with God’s nature and that the removal of evil is the only way for his kingdom to thrive. However, the poets of Israel did not simply invoke God’s judgment on anyone with whom they could not get along. Instead, the psalmists were guided by God’s standards of justice and righteousness, to which God holds all humans accountable.
The psalmists were intimately acquainted with grief. They had suffered and been oppressed and marginalized by bullies, leaders, and kings from inside and outside of Israel. Their prayers were full of faith and hope, asking how long the Lord would tolerate their suffering and confessing that the Lord alone could rescue them from evil. They expressed deep longing for his redemption. By the principle of retribution, they asked the Lord to inflict upon the wicked the suffering that they had endured (Ps 5:10 dd; 6:10 de; 7:9 df; 9:19-20 dg; 28:4 dh; 56:7 di; 104:35 dj; 137:7-9 dk; 139:19 dl). Through these prayers for justice and vindication, the godly may rest in peace as they await God’s rescue.
Do we truly see evil as evil, or do we perceive it merely as an inconvenience? Prayers for the end of evil are appropriate as long as we recognize God as arbiter, judge, and executor. The prayer for the coming of God’s Kingdom implies the removal of evil. But now the cruelty inflicted on the wicked has been transformed through the cruel crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This act of God informs how we pray for those who oppose us. Jesus will indeed judge and bring an ultimate end to evil (see Rev 19:11-21 dm), but while Christians await that final judgment, they are to love as Christ loved (John 13:34 dn), pray for their enemies, and forgive them (Matt 5:38-48 do; Col 3:13 dp).
Passages for Further Study
2 Chr 24:22 dq; Neh 4:5 dr; Pss 3:7 ds; 9:19-20 dt; 10:15 du; 12:3 dv; 41:10 dw; 55:15 dx; 69:22-28 dy; 79:6 dz; 109:6-20 ea; 110:5-6 eb; 137:1-9 ec; Isa 61:2 ed; Jer 11:20-23 ee; 18:19-23 ef; 51:35 eg; Lam 1:22 eh; 3:64-66 ei; Acts 1:20 ej; Rom 11:9-10 ek; Rev 6:10 el
Nehemiah 5
Summary for Neh 5:1-13: 5:1-13 em Although severe financial problems threatened to derail the wall’s completion (5:1-5 en), Nehemiah worked out a solution (5:6-13 eo).5:2 ep Some farmers had diverted their efforts from raising crops to building the wall, leaving their large families in need of food to survive. Someone had to feed their families, or they would have to stop work on the wall and go home to work in their fields.
5:3 eq Some small landowners had mortgaged everything to survive. The famine made the problem worse because grain was scarce and the price of food naturally increased.
5:4 er to pay our taxes: Despite the famine, the Persians did not cancel the onerous royal tribute due at harvest time.
5:5 es we must sell our children into slavery: See Exod 21:1-11 et. These families were desperate to survive.
Summary for Neh 5:6-7: 5:6-7 eu Nehemiah was very angry, but he controlled himself, thought it over, and then spoke out in order to resolve the conflict rather than make it worse (see Jas 1:19-20 ev).
5:9 ew walk in the fear of our God: See Lev 25:35-43 ex.
• avoid being mocked: See also Neh 1:3 ey; 2:19 ez; 4:1-3 fa.
5:10 fb I myself ... have been lending: Nehemiah and his associates were evidently making loans without burdening people. Nehemiah’s example was the solution: to give financial help without pushing people further into debt by charging interest (see Deut 15:7-11 fc).
5:11 fd Nehemiah demanded that the rich lenders restore their fields and repay the interest (literally the hundredth part), which they should not have collected (see also Exod 22:25 fe; Lev 25:35-37 ff). The literal hundredth part suggests that the interest was one percent per month, lower than the twenty percent annual rate found in some documents of that time, or the sixty percent annual rate charged at Elephantine in Egypt. But even a relatively low rate of interest violated God’s covenant.
5:12 fg made the nobles and officials swear: Both God and the community would hold them accountable.
Summary for Neh 5:14-19: 5:14-19 fh This section describes Nehemiah’s consistent policy of servant leadership and personal generosity. 5:14 fi This is the first mention of Nehemiah’s status as governor, a position not mentioned when the king first sent Nehemiah to Jerusalem.
• Persia’s government officials usually drew an official food allowance from the local population, but Nehemiah and his associates instead purchased food out of their regular pay.
5:15 fj The former governors were probably Nehemiah’s immediate predecessors, not Sheshbazzar (Ezra 1:8 fk, about ninety years earlier) or Zerubbabel (Hag 1:1 fl, about eighty years earlier).
5:19 fm Nehemiah’s prayer for God to remember and bless him was a sign of his dependence on God.
Nehemiah 6
Summary for Neh 6:1-19: 6:1-19 fn With the financial crisis solved (ch 5 fo), the narrative returns to how the enemies of rebuilding tried to intimidate or eliminate Nehemiah.6:2 fp The plain of Ono, located near Lod (Ezra 2:33 fq), was probably a neutral site west of Jerusalem, where Nehemiah would have been unprotected.
Summary for Neh 6:6-7: 6:6-7 fr planning to rebel ... you plan to be their king: Those who had opposed the restoration of the Temple had used similar tactics (see Ezra 4 fs).
• At times in Israel’s history, prophets did play a role in establishing a new king (cp. 1 Sam 9:16 ft; 2 Kgs 9 fu).
6:11 fv A good leader would not run from danger but would stand as an example to his people.
Summary for Neh 6:15-16: 6:15-16 fw just fifty-two days: Everyone realized that the help of our God was what made such success possible (see also 1:11 fx; 2:8 fy, 18 fz, 20 ga; 4:15 gb, 20 gc).
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